Google Assistant becomes useful on iOS with Siri Shortcuts support

You can activate Google Assistant by simply talking to Siri.

Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa are way ahead of Apple’s Siri in the digital assistant race. Now, Google is taking new measures to make Google Assistant a more inclusive experience on Apple iOS.

It is a known fact that Siri is baked into Apple’s mobile operating system, and has more granular controls that are not available to competing virtual assistants. Google Assistant or Alexa cannot function like Siri on iOS, but Google has now found a workaround to make Assistant better. While it is already possible to add an Assistant widget to the left of your home screen (or lock screen) and with a new update released today, Google Assistant is getting support for Siri Shortcuts.

With the updated version of Google Assistant, you can ask Siri Shortcuts to trigger Assistant whenever you say the phrase “Ok Google” or “Hey Siri” to Apple’s digital assistant. Now, when you say the phrase to Siri, it will immediately open the Assistant app and start listening for your query or command. This is the closest one can get to the experience of native Google Assistant on iOS.

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You can access it hands-free on an unlocked iPhone by saying “Hey Siri” followed by Ok Google or whatever phrase you have picked while creating Siri Shortcuts. It may not be as seamless as just saying “Hey Google” on an Android smartphone but it still goes a long way as far as getting Assistant to work immediately on an iPhone.

After the update, iOS users can also set up Siri Shortcuts for phrases that you frequently use with Google Assistant. You can set up quick shortcut for activating a smart home function or enable smart home routines with a single phrase. You can program Assistant to work in a way that when you say “Good Night” to Siri, it can turn off all the lights and set an alarm.

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Siri Shortcuts is a radical improvement that paves way for the digital assistant to work with third-party apps. This integration with Google Assistant could be the strongest example yet of how Siri gives powers to other apps on iOS. In order to try for yourself, just get the updated version of Google Assistant from App Store, and ensure that you are running iOS 12 on your iPhone or iPad.